Regarding Ortiz, who injured his right Achilles’ tendon running the bases Monday, Valentine said a second opinion confirmed that the slugger would miss time.

Said Valentine: “He got a second opinion and it was the same opinion he got here, which said that he’s gong to be 10 to 14 days, so we’re putting him on the disabled list and we’re activating Mauro Gomez.”

Ortiz is hitting .316 with a .414 OBP, .609 slugging mark, 1.024 OPS, 23 homers and 58 RBI. He had an 11-game hitting streak, including a run of 10 straight games with at least one hit and one walk, at the time of his injury.

Gomez is hitting .308/.333/.423/.756 in eight games this year, having played both first and third base for the Sox. In Triple-A Pawtucket, he’s been one of the top performers in the International League, hitting .317/.371/.634/1.005 with 20 homers and 49 extra-base hits in 73 games.

Valentine said the team will take a mix-and-match approach at DH until Ortiz is healthy.

“I don’t think there’s a guy who has DH next to his name,” Valentine said. “We’ll try to figure our the lineup that matches up the best with the people that he have and go to battle.”

Carl Crawford returned this week from an elbow injury and has hit second with success in his first two games back. Valentine wouldn’t say what will happen when Dustin Pedroia returns, calling a potential logjam at the No. 2 spot “creating another controversy” on the media and fans’ part.

“I don’t think there will be a problem,” he said. “When I looked at the records here, Dustin’s batted a lot of places in the order. We’ll figure out what’s best for the team and what’s best for Dustin. He’s so important to our team that what we’re looking for right now is just getting him healthy and getting him back in the lineup.”

Valentine said that he and Crawford didn’t discuss Crawford’s place in the lineup (he hit seventh for much of last season), but that he simply felt the left fielder was the right man to bat after Jacoby Ellsbury.

“We never had that conversation,” he said. “You put people in the place where you think they’re going to be successful but also work with the team. I would say the second-place hitter, we were in search of. He filled that void nicely and played two terrific games.”

Franklin Morales was the odd man out in the rotation recently when the team moved him to the bullpen. In five starts, Morales went 2-1 with a 3.25 earned run average, 33 strikeouts and eight walks over 27 2/3 innings.

Valentine said that both he and assistant pitching coach Randy Niemann believed Morales could be an effective starter, the move had to be made as the team went from a six-man rotation to a five-man rotation. While Valentine said that “things could change as [the Sox] go on,” the plan is for Morales to stick in the bullpen.

“Unless you know of someone in that starting staff who can pitch in the bullpen or should be in the bullpen or someone in that starting staff who can go to the minor leagues, I don’t see anywhere else for Franklin to be pitching right now,” he said.”